Nothing so facilitates writing as actually having something to say, yet the conditions under which, and the tools with which, writing is done can contribute to facility—or to difficulty. —Joseph Epstein, The Middle of My Tether, 1983

Cutting taxes may facilitate economic recovery.

Her rise to power was facilitated by her influential friends.

The moderator's role is to facilitate the discussion by asking appropriate questions.

City commissioners briefly discussed the OutGames at their most recent meeting, lamenting the event’s massive problems while praising city staffers who stepped up to facilitate makeshift tournaments for athletes.

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'facilitate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

As with so many English words, it's easy to find a Latin origin for facilitate. It traces back to the Latin adjective facilis, meaning "easy." Other descendants of facilis in English include facile ("easy to do"), facility ("the quality of being easily performed"), faculty ("ability"), and difficult (from dis- plus facilis, which equals "not easy"). Facilis in turn comes from facere, a Latin verb meaning "to make or do." Facere has played a role in the development of dozens of English words, ranging from affect to surfeit.